Re: MG Horror Guidelines

Hmm. I don't write or read horror, but I do write MG. My suggestion is to immerse yourself in what is already out there and see how far other published writers have taken things. I did just read a scary MG that was more of a scary Halloween story than outright horror, but it was still pretty scary, though not graphic. It had also had a mixture of humor and sweetness, which really helped balance out the tension and fear factor in the story.

Re: MG Horror Guidelines

Meddling Kids by Edgar Cantero is a great example of a recent MG Horror! Others I can think of are Doll Bones by Holly Black, The Jumbies by Terry Baptiste, The Night Gardener by Jonathan Auxier, and the Lockwood & Co. series by Jonathan Stroud. Classic past titles might include Coraline and The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman and ParaNorman by Elizabeth Cody Kimmel. I hear Katherine Arden is coming out with a new title called Small Spaces for middle graders...not sure about the pub date but it's supposed to be brilliant!

Re: MG Horror Guidelines

I thought you might find this article interesting. It mentions Holly Black's Doll Bones and Robert Beatty's Serafina and the Black Cloak: http://whatswriteaboutthis.com/whats-write-in-middle-grade-horror-doll-bones-serafina/ The big horror MG series I remember was R.L. Stein's Goosebumps. Looks like he is still writing, for example, Young Scrooge, The Little Shop of Monsters ... One story that always creeped me out was Neil Gaiman's Coraline!

Re: MG Horror Guidelines

Thanks, Susan! I saved the article and keep adding to my list. I'm not sure how I missed it, but I had no idea Serafina was so spooky!

Also keep in mind Middle Grade can be split between lower middle grade (that's often only twice the size of a chapter book) and older middle grade that is just about the length of an early young adult.

I had to look this up, as I'm still considering a middle grade Cyberpunk/Biopunk/Spypunk at some point.

Re: MG Horror Guidelines

I bet. If it's one of those situations where you're thinking MIne's almost like that, but... And the part that makes it different is where you're probably breaking rules, I'm right there with you.

Well that and while I consider myself a middle grade writer, a lot of my aim is to subvert the Disney children's story stereotype. Even when I hadn't wrote middle grade, it was early teenagers taking on the responsibilities of adults, and how while children would like to be thought of as older, the idea of them actually being adults is ... well quite dark indeed.

Think of it less like a dystopian novel, and more like an Urban Mobster/Espionage novella, with a very slight element of Lord Of The Flies and fairies.

Hence while not horror, I see myself in a similar situation with horror middle grade writers.

Re: MG Horror Guidelines

Just finished a flash fiction Upper Middle Grade called Mother's Sea, a science fiction. It's perfectly fine if you're main character sounds intellegent, even more than their age, as long as in general they ... paradoxically, sound like their age.

In other words, there should be other clues to indicate their age.

When carried over into mood, while whimsical and adventureus, it should still convey the darkness that carries over into the horror or dystopian genre.

Hope that helps.

Example. When I wrote Nymphs Of Winter Fire, while there was beheadings referenced throughout, main characters still indicated their voice by saying things like "You mean I have to take out the pale?"

For me, I use this contrast between childhood tone and adult horror to effect.

I can't emphasize enough the importance of, while the parent (if not absent) may be preachy, it must be obvious this is the main character speaking, and not the author.

Re: MG Horror Guidelines

Just wanted to add to this discussion. I had Michelle Rubin edit and give me an overall critique of my MG Horror manuscript. I even got the honor of having an hour phone call with her a few weeks after I'd read everything to ask her questions regarding her comments/edits. I had been perplexed about her telling me to remove some of the scary stuff from the novel and asked her about it. My question was formed like, "Michelle, I noticed you suggest removing some of the killings in my manuscript and the way my MC died because it is perhaps too brutal. Yet, Neil Gaiman's THE GRAVEYARD BOOK has Nobody's family killed via a stabbing by someone." Her response, "Well, Neil Gaiman is Neil Gaiman. He can write virtually what he wants. Right? You are trying to get your first novel published, I'd make the deaths different, perhaps accidental." Then, our discussion went on about possibilities and why with my MC being 10, I needed to get more of the violence out of the story. (Please note, I never had gore and only briefly told how someone died. She still thought it was too violent. ex: someone died falling onto a stair spindle.) So, though we see more violent deaths in MG horror, I now take a closer look at who the author is and how long they've been published. Editors let them get away with more when they are established. And if anyone doesn't know who Michelle Rubin is, she's currently the managing editor at CornerstonesUS, amd worked as a literary agent for 25 years at Writers House (Yep, the agency that represents Neil Gaiman). Thus, I'm sure she is on to something. LoL Hope this helps.